TOP PHILIPPINE diplomats abroad visited the Clark International Airport (CRK) in Pampanga on Friday as part of their Economic Diplomacy Familiarization Tour.
“Clark in the heart of Central Luzon will connect the whole country,” according to Philippine ambassador to Geneva, Switzerland Evan Garcia during the walkthrough of the major facilities of Clark airport. The group earlier visited Cebu City and the Global Conference of Heads of Posts in Manila.
With Garcia are fellow ambassadors Jose Jimeno (Berne, Switzerland), Rowena Sanchez (Ankara, Turkey), Celia Feria (Lisbon, Portugal), Junever West (Amman, Jordan), Maria Thomeczek (Berlin, Germany), Consuls General Teresa Dizon de Vega (New York, USA), Oscar Orcine (Manado, Indonesia), and Charge d’Affaires Elmer Cato (Baghdad, Iraq).
CRK hosts the daily flights of Philippine Airlines to Caticlan, Cebu, and Davao, and daily international flights to Incheon in South Korea, and AirAsia’s thrice weekly Clark-Kalibo flight set to begin late next month.
The flag-carrier is also set to launch its Palawan route via Puerto Princesa and Busuanga domestic flights by March 26.
Also presented to the visiting diplomats is an update of CIAC’s Master Development Plan which includes the building of a new Passenger Terminal with an eight million-passenger capacity being implemented by the Department of Transportation headed by Secretary Arthur Tugade.
CIAC seeks to increase capacity of Clark airport to 4.2 millions passengers annually in the next two to three years.
The huge market potential of CRK are travelers coming from Regions 1 to 3 and the Camanava area (Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, Malabon) with a combined population of around 24.2 million.